Our selection procedure

We always receive more suitable applications than we have places and we only have the resources to interview a set number of applicants. The success of any application depends on its strength relative to all the other applications in that academic year.

On average we receive around 1000 applications each year. All applicants who meet our Entry Requirements are ranked according to our Selection Procedure, with around the top 560 candidates being invited to interview. Following interview, we normally make around 300 offers.

We give all applications full consideration, irrespective of the applicant's age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital or parental status, religion, social class, nationality, ethnic origin, or area of UK residence.

We and our parent universities are committed to a programme of widening access to higher education. Our admissions process selects applicants on the basis of their potential, and we take account of evidence of educational, social, health or other personal disadvantage.

Details of our selection procedure

Guiding principles of selection

Selection for medical school implies selection for the medical profession. All medical school admissions teams are tasked with selecting those applicants with the potential to be the best doctors. We are guided by current thinking on what makes a good doctor; for example, The Role of the Doctor Consensus Statement, agreed in 2008, outlines the unique combination of attributes and abilities doctors require. We recognise the importance of a transparent selection process, and we agree with the Medical Schools Council's guiding principles for the admission of medical students (pdf), revised in 2010.

When you decide to embark on a career in medicine, you should consider the range of different careers available within the medical profession, and the education and training these involve. The majority of UK medical graduates will go on to work as hospital doctors or in primary care for the NHS. Significantly, up to 50% will become general practitioners, providing comprehensive health care for the local community. There is a broad spectrum of careers across medical, surgical and other specialties, and it should be noted that whilst many of these specialties have historically been hospital-based, healthcare is moving towards a more community-centred model of delivery, so doctors will increasingly be expecting to deliver healthcare in a range of settings.

Our selection procedure ensures that any declared disability or criminal conviction is not allowed to influence your assessment.

If we find out, at any stage of the process, that any of the information in your application is untrue or misleading, you may forfeit your offer or place at HYMS.

GCSEs and equivalents

If our minimum entry requirements are met, applications will be given an academic score based upon the best 8 achieved grades at GCSE or equivalent Year 11 qualifications. We reserve the right to change our scoring system at any point in order to rank applicants appropriately. For applicants who have taken qualifications other than GCSEs, an assessment of equivalence will be made.

How we use the UKCAT

All applicants must take the UKCAT in the year they apply. Applicants with a Situational Judgement Test Band of 4 (the lowest band) will not be considered.

Prior to interview

Prior to interview we use your total UKCAT score alongside your GCSE results in order to decide who to invite to interview.

For 2016 entry, we will award you a number of points based upon your total UKCAT score, we can only do this once we have received all UKCAT results. As UKCAT results are not released to universities until November, the number of points that each UKCAT score will receive as part of our Selection Procedure will not be determined until after the UCAS deadline.

After interview

Following interview, we make offers based primarily on interview performance, and we use the UKCAT Situational Judgement Test as an extra interview 'station'. See our Selection Procedure for details.

How we assess UCAS forms

Personal statement

GCSE and UKCAT performance data are predominantly used initially to determine whether or not you are short-listed for interview. However, your personal statement is an important part of your application to HYMS as it allows you to talk about your interests, achievements and ambitions. Although we do not formally score your statement we will read it carefully and may use the information it contains as part of our short-listing process at any point.

If you are invited for interview, your statement is likely to prove useful preparation for interview questions. It is important that your statement is honest and accurate; we may check the claims that you make on your statement and discovery of fabricated or exaggerated material may lead to the withdrawal of a future offer of a place.

Important points for you to address in your personal statement are:-

Motivation for Medicine

Realistic understanding of Medicine, including hands-on experience of caring and observing healthcare in a hospital and community settings

Self-motivation and responsibility

Written communication skills

Interests, activities and achievements in addition to academic interests/strengths

We are particularly interested in your reflections on what you have learned about yourself, or the medical profession from your experiences.

References

Any application submitted without a completed academic reference will be automatically rejected. If it is a while since you were studying and you have been in a full time job for more than one year we will also require a reference from your latest employer who will be asked to comment upon your suitability to study Medicine.

What happens at interview

Each year we interview approximately 500 candidates. Our interviews for 2017 entry will take place during December 2016 and January 2017.

Our Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) process is a carefully structured sequence of stations. These can take place in any order.

A semi-structured interview, with two interviewers, lasting 10 minutes. There will be up to three key questions and you may be asked to expand on your responses. Each interviewer will score your responses separately using a prescribed set of grade descriptors.

A second, semi-structured personal interview, also with two interviewers and lasting 10 minutes. There will be no more than three key questions during the interview, but interviewers will ask you to expand your responses. Each interviewer will score your responses separately using a prescribed set of grade descriptors.

A ‘Scenario Station’ lasting 5 minutes. In the room there will be an actor and an assessor. As soon as you go into the room, you will be in the scenario. The assessor will not take part; his/her role will simply be to observe and score this station. An actor will be present playing a character and you will need to interact with that person in the same way as you would in real life. The actor will be playing a character other than themselves but we want you to be yourself. Please do and say what you would in real life – you are not being asked to take on a character other than yourself, and we are not judging your acting skills. No medical or special knowledge will be required – we are not testing specialist knowledge.

A group interview lasting 20 minutes. The aim of this group activity is to allow a 'live' assessment of your ability to work effectively with your peers. You will be scored on your contribution using a prescribed set of grade descriptors, by an experienced problem-based learning tutor and one other trained assessor.

During the whole MMI, we will be observing and scoring you in the following areas:

Your ability to work collaboratively in a group

How you contribute relevant information to the group discussion

How effectively and clearly you articulate your own thoughts in a group setting

Insight into a medical career

Your understanding of the values in the NHS Constitution

Motivation for a medical career

Your awareness and understanding of current medical issues

Your communication skills

Your understanding of and motivation for the HYMS MBBS course

Your personal qualities such as empathy, tolerance of ambiguity and resilience

Your ability to think critically

In total, you will be assessed by seven different people during the interview process and you will be being assessed for a total of 45 minutes.

Please Note - If applicants cannot attend the date that they are given, we may not be able to reschedule. Applicants who know of any dates that they will not be available, should inform the Medical School immediately after submission of their application:hyms.admissions@hyms.ac.uk

Contextual Data & Widening Participation

HYMS is committed to selecting the best applicants based on their potential, we may therefore use contextual information alongside your UCAS form to better-inform decision making. Due to the availability and comparability of data, the use of contextual information will apply to UK applicants only.

How we make offers

Your scores from the three separate components of the interview process are collated in addition to points awarded for you UKCAT Situational Judgement Test Band. We then rank applicants in order of total score and make offers to around the top 300 students. In general we wait until we've completed all our interviews before making any offers.

Feedback

If you're unsuccessful in your application, we're happy to send you feedback. However, in line with the recommendations of the Schwartz report (September 2004), the only feedback we can provide is your numerical ranking in our scoring system. This is because our many excellent applicants are in fact competing against each other, and so we score applicants' relative strengths rather than their weaknesses. This also means we're usually not able to give specific advice on individual applications, except when the interviewers ask us to pass on specific feedback comments.

If you believe you have been incorrectly rejected on academic grounds please re-check our Entry Requirements before contacting us.

In order to request feedback you can email us at applicantfeedback@hyms.ac.uk. Your email must come from the email address registered on your UCAS application and you must include your UCAS ID and date of birth in your request.